Christina Aguilera biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Christina Maria Aguilera was born on December 18, 1980, in Staten Island, New York, to father Fausto Xavier Aguilera and his wife, Shelly Loraine Fidler. Aguilera's early home life was troubled. Her father, an Ecuadorian immigrant and sergeant in the U.S. Army, was an abusive husband. It wasn't until Aguilera was 6 that her mother managed to end the marriage and move her two daughters (Christina and her younger sister, Rachel) to a new life in Rochester, Pennsylvania.

At an early age, Aguilera developed a deep love of music—a gift she no doubt inherited from her musical mother, an experienced violinist and pianist. By the time she was in elementary school, Aguilera's big voice had swept through a number of local talent shows, causing harsh envy from her schoolmates and even some parents. It became so bad that Aguilera's mother eventually made the decision to home-school her daughter.

Still, Aguilera continued to perform, and in 1990, she earned a spot on the nationally syndicated television program Star Search. There, the 9-year-old prodigy wowed audiences with a mesmerizing rendition of Etta James's "A Sunday Kind of Love," placing second in the competition.

Commercial Success

In 1993, Aguilera earned more national attention when she landed a spot as a "Mouseketeer" on The All New Mickey Mouse Club. Her fellow castmates were a collection of future stars, including Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling and Keri Russell. Aguilera's time on the program lasted just two years before the ambitious singer moved with her mother to Japan, to record the hit single "All I Wanna Do" with Japanese pop icon Keizo Nakanishi. More success soon followed.

In 1998, Aguilera was tapped to sing the song "Reflection" on the soundtrack for the Walt Disney film Mulan. The singer made her debut at the all-female concert festival Lilith Fair the following year, and signed with RCA Records. Also in 1999, she released her self-titled debut album, a successful record that would go on to sell more than 8 million copies, due in no small part to two big Billboard hits: "Genie in a Bottle" and the No. 1 single "What a Girl Wants." The album earned Aguilera the 2000 Grammy Award for best new artist.

With fellow Mouseketeers Spears and Timberlake also lighting up the charts with their respective music, Aguilera became one of the leading faces of a group of teen pop stars. But she wasn't comfortable maintaining the squeaky clean image this sort of role foisted upon her.